Safety breach at Lafayette

[Anonymous]

Is this true? I didn't get an email.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Is this true? I didn't get an email.

It was mentioned in the very bottom of the email from Dr. B about security measures that was sent over the weekend.

[Anonymous]

From 8/26 at 2:30. If you have students enrolled and didn't receive this, you must not be signed up for communications properly: do it here: http://www.lafayettehsa.org/sign-up-for-news/

"Our top priority at Lafayette is the safety of our students and staff. Now that we are all back together for the new school year, please use the following information to help us all stay safe:

Signing-in – all visitors are asked to use the front doors and sign in when entering the school. Please wear your visitor’s badge for the duration of your stay. If you see someone without a visitor’s badge, please remind them to go to the security desk to obtain one. It takes a village. We appreciate your adherence and patience with this procedure.

Drills – over the course of the year, we will practice fire (evacuation) drills, lock down drills, and reverse evacuation drills. A reverse evacuation drill is when students are outside the building and are brought back inside due to a disturbance or safety issue outside in the neighborhood. Teachers discuss these drills with students in advance in age-appropriate language. We had our first fire drill on Friday and it went smoothly.

Evacuation and Reunification – if there was ever an event that would not allow us to come back into the building, we would evacuate to Blessed Sacrament School (5841 Chevy Chase Pkwy NW, Washington DC 20015. This is our reunification site. Parents would be notified via email, robocall, and social media in the event of a full evacuation and reunification. Parents should then report directly to Blessed Sacrament to be reunified with their student. Please note – students will only be released to parents/guardians. This process requires patience as it is often emotionally charged and takes a considerable amount of time.

Our emergency procedures can also be found in the handbook that is posted on our website:

http://www.lafayettehsa.org/student-life/handbook/#SafetyEmergencyProcedures

We must all work together to keep our students and school secure. We are not immune from safety issues. Friday after school (approx. 4:15 pm) we had a man enter the building through a propped door (not the front door). He entered several classrooms, and eventually stole a teacher’s credit cards. School security and the police were immediately contacted Friday evening. Please help us ensure that all exterior doors are closed at all times. Close any open doors you see and please never prop a door.

Thank you all for a smooth and positive first week of school. Together we are strongest.

Enjoy your weekend

Dr. B

[Anonymous]

Okay, I get the upset. But how would you suggest, realistically and legally, security guards guard against this? I work at a ritzy college campus and we have had purses stolen and all. Where there is opportunity there are crimes. Locking doors when not in the office has been our response. The fewer opportunities, the fewer responses. Some cameras help to investigate when needed.
Or would you want security guards to run an ad hoc background check on everyone entering and leaving the building? And where would you draw the line of who is or not a "criminal"? I'm not sure all parents would pass that test... Or should they maybe look at people's faces, size, skin color, clothing and all, to determine who is a likely criminal and who isn't... We all know where that takes us.

Time to smarten up a little before going on online rants.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Okay, I get the upset. But how would you suggest, realistically and legally, security guards guard against this? I work at a ritzy college campus and we have had purses stolen and all. Where there is opportunity there are crimes. Locking doors when not in the office has been our response. The fewer opportunities, the fewer responses. Some cameras help to investigate when needed.
Or would you want security guards to run an ad hoc background check on everyone entering and leaving the building? And where would you draw the line of who is or not a "criminal"? I'm not sure all parents would pass that test... Or should they maybe look at people's faces, size, skin color, clothing and all, to determine who is a likely criminal and who isn't... We all know where that takes us.

Time to smarten up a little before going on online rants.

Locking purses in a desk drawer seems a logical response and good common sense.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Okay, I get the upset. But how would you suggest, realistically and legally, security guards guard against this? I work at a ritzy college campus and we have had purses stolen and all. Where there is opportunity there are crimes. Locking doors when not in the office has been our response. The fewer opportunities, the fewer responses. Some cameras help to investigate when needed.
Or would you want security guards to run an ad hoc background check on everyone entering and leaving the building? And where would you draw the line of who is or not a "criminal"? I'm not sure all parents would pass that test... Or should they maybe look at people's faces, size, skin color, clothing and all, to determine who is a likely criminal and who isn't... We all know where that takes us.

Time to smarten up a little before going on online rants.

I don't see any online rants here. At the beginning, some confusion about communication and whether it happened, but I'm not reading any rants or anger.

It's good the community knows about it so we can watch for propped doors and teachers are reminded to lock up their bags.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Supposedly a man entered the building and stole money and teachers credit cards on Friday. What's the purpose of having 2 security officers?!

Are you sure it wasn't the HSA embezzler?

[Anonymous]

Talk about burying the lede.?

[Anonymous]

I don't think it's the fact that wallets were went through or purses were left out, it's that fact that with 2
Security guards on campus this still happened, and this gentlemen took the time to go into multiple classrooms. It seems like he was wondering around while children were still in aftercare, teachers were there, etc. and the school was not put on lockdown.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don't think it's the fact that wallets were went through or purses were left out, it's that fact that with 2
Security guards on campus this still happened, and this gentlemen took the time to go into multiple classrooms. It seems like he was wondering around while children were still in aftercare, teachers were there, etc. and the school was not put on lockdown.

Not to mention the there are screens at the guard station monitoring the cameras throughout the building.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Okay, I get the upset. But how would you suggest, realistically and legally, security guards guard against this? I work at a ritzy college campus and we have had purses stolen and all. Where there is opportunity there are crimes. Locking doors when not in the office has been our response. The fewer opportunities, the fewer responses. Some cameras help to investigate when needed.
Or would you want security guards to run an ad hoc background check on everyone entering and leaving the building? And where would you draw the line of who is or not a "criminal"? I'm not sure all parents would pass that test... Or should they maybe look at people's faces, size, skin color, clothing and all, to determine who is a likely criminal and who isn't... We all know where that takes us.

Time to smarten up a little before going on online rants.

An elementary school is not an open campus. People should not be able to just walk in and get close to students and teachers.

[Anonymous]

.

An elementary school is not an open campus. People should not be able to just walk in and get close to students and teachers.

The letter from Dr B says the thief snuck in through a propped open door - a parent at pick-up or a kid exited and left an entry point.

And how in the world could the school have locked down? By the time this was discovered, I imagine the thief was long gone, and a lock-down would have been unhelpful, and would have caused enormous chaos. I can't even imagine... I've been part of a lockdown before (twice) and that isn't something to take lightly.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:.

An elementary school is not an open campus. People should not be able to just walk in and get close to students and teachers.

The letter from Dr B says the thief snuck in through a propped open door - a parent at pick-up or a kid exited and left an entry point.

And how in the world could the school have locked down? By the time this was discovered, I imagine the thief was long gone, and a lock-down would have been unhelpful, and would have caused enormous chaos. I can't even imagine... I've been part of a lockdown before (twice) and that isn't something to take lightly.

It might also have been the door by the loading dock; I've often seen that door propped, which I hope is a practice that has now stopped.